Food Friday: Granola

Now that Friend Friday posts are fortnightly, I have decided to feature some of my favourite recipes on alternate Fridays. In order to keep the fashion element of the blog on a Friday too, I will also endeavour to post an outfit post later in the day. Hope you like the changes.

A couple of week's ago I mentioned that my weekend breakfast was my homemade granola, the recipe for which I discovered via A Girl, A Style.

It is an reasonably easy recipe to follow that I would highly recommend it for your breakfast as you can make a large batch at the beginning of the week and it will last a week or two, depending on your appetite!

Ingredients:


3 cups of plain rolled oats (not instant or quick cooking)
1 cup roughly chopped nuts (any combination, such as almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts or pistachios)
A good handful of mixed seeds (such as pumpkin, sunflower, linseed)
1 cup roughly chopped dried fruit (such as apricots, peach, cranberries, dried cherries, sultanas, raisins)
1/2 cup apple juice
2 tbsp honey + 2 tbsp maple or golden syrup (or 4 tbsp honey)
2 tbsp vegetable oil or melted butter
Small handful of dried coconut (shredded or flaked - optional)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 pinch salt
A large handful of rice bubbles, wheat flakes, chocolate chips or any other preferred additives (optional)


Method:


1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Lightly grease 2 large baking trays/sheets.


2. Combine the oats and cinnamon in a bowl.

3. In a separate small bowl, combine the juice, vanilla extract, honey, syrup, salt and oil/butter. 

4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, and stir well.

5. Spoon evenly into two large baking trays, and bake for approximately 20 minutes – or until almost dry and golden.

6. Add the nuts, seeds, dried fruit and coconut (stirring in to combine and break up the baked mix slightly – you want a mix of small pieces and chunks). Bake for another 10-20 minutes, or until the nuts and dried fruit look slightly baked and the whole mix is a nicely crisp and golden.

7. Allow the mixture to cool completely. And store in an airtight container.

I like to serve a couple of spoons of the granola mix with a good few spoons of Greek-style yoghurt and a handful of berries.

What is your favourite breakfast recipe?

I have added a little poll in the top of the right hand column, if you have a spare second - please choose your response. Thank you.

RECIPE: Homemade Granola

What better for breakfast than a bowl of homemade granola with yoghurt and berries? After seeing this easy peasy recipe for granola on A Style, A Girl, I knew I had to give it a go:

What do you like for your breakfast?

Recipe: Homemade Swiss Style Museli (via River Cottage)

Recently, on a Sunday evening I have found myself watching re-runs of River Cottage Every Day. A few weeks ago Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall presented some interesting options for breakfast including his own homemade Swiss Style Museli. I'm always looking for new breakfast ideas as it is the meal that I fail to get very excited about (unless it's a fry up at a greasy spoon after a night out!), so I decided to give the museli recipe a go. It's all I've been having every morning and when I realised I was almost out and needed to make up some more, I thought I'd share it with you:

Ingredients:

200g porridge oats

150g mixed dried fruit of your choice, such as raisins, sultanas, dried apricots, dates, prunes

100g nuts of your choice, lightly toasted if you have time

100g wheat flakes (optional)

3-4 tbsp seeds, such as pumpkin, sunflower, sesame or flax (optional)

To serve (for 1)

1 crisp eating apple

Juice of 1-2 oranges (or a little milk, if you prefer)

Sugar or honey

Plain yoghurt

How to make swiss style muesli:

1. To make the muesli, put the oats in a bowl. Roughly chop larger dried fruits, such as apricots, dates and prunes. Leave the nuts whole, or chop them roughly if you prefer. Add the fruit and nuts to the oats, together with the wheat flakes and seeds if using, and stir to combine. Tip into an airtight container, seal and store in a cool, dark place until required.

2. For a serving of muesli, put about 50g of the muesli mix into a bowl. Coarsely grate or finely chop the apple (including the skin) and add this to the muesli. Squeeze the orange(s) and add the juice to the bowl (or use milk, if you like). Stir to blend everything evenly and leave to soak for about 10 minutes. Finally, sprinkle over just a little sugar or trickle over some honey, add a good dollop of yoghurt and serve.

I prefer to serve mine with a large dollop of Greek yoghurt, fresh raspberries and a large drizzle of honey, how do you like yours? Next week I plan to try out the River Cottage answer to the Pot Noodle: Chorizo and Tomato Instant Noodles in a Pot. I'll let you know how that goes, naturally.